Dolphins cornerback Richard Marshall is among those confused by calls and non-calls

DAVIE – Don't get Richard Marshall started on the replacement officials.

Oh, the first-year Dolphins cornerback isn't about to pull a Bill Belichick and chase one of these overmatched fill-ins off the field.

Nor will Marshall drop expletives on social media the way Packers guard T.J. Lang did after Green Bay got robbed on that Russell Wilson-to-Golden Tate Fail Mary on Monday night.

However, Marshall is getting pretty frustrated in his own quiet way.

Three games into this season, no cornerback in the NFL has been flagged as many times as Vontae Davis' replacement.

Three penalties were called against him in Sunday's overtime loss to the Jets as he tried, mostly in vain, to keep up with Santonio Holmes.

One of those, for defensive holding, was declined after Holmes came down anyway with the 38-yard reception that set up the game-winning field goal.

Two others, for pass interference and illegal contact, stood.

Add in the 26-yard pass interference penalty Marshall received in Week 1 at Houston, and you're talking about the early leader in a terribly dubious category.

It would be one thing if Marshall, in his seventh pro season, felt he was guilty each time, if he believed his technique needed sharpening.

But the problem with the world's richest sports league using disposable officials is no one has any idea how long these guys will be around.

Will a settlement with the real zebras be hammered out this week, as some hope, especially after the Clueless In Seattle escapades?

Will the fill-ins be around for another few weeks or, as Tony Dungy suggested on his Twitter account Monday, longer than any of us wish to contemplate?

So a player like Marshall isn't sure whether he really needs to adjust or just hang in there until, well, the game gets called correctly again.

"With the refs, you just have to keep playing," Marshall said Monday. "Plays are going to be called that you feel like shouldn't have been called and plays that you feel like should be called are not going to be called."

Sunday night's Patriots loss to the Ravens included any number of egregious errors, right down to the final game-winning kick that may or may not have sailed wide.

Monday's final play -- the Touchception, as some Twitter comics were already calling it -- was even more embarrassing for a league that takes its image (and itself) very seriously.

The impact in Las Vegas alone was seismic.

Yet, as the league investigates Belichick's postgame behavior, along with that of Ravens coach John Harbaugh and Redskins assistant Kyle Shanahan, perhaps NFL executives should consider the feedback of players like Marshall.

They're the ones conditioned their whole lives to know what's acceptable and what's not between the lines. They're the ones who instantly can tell what's fair and what's foul.

But now? No one is sure anymore.

"I did the same thing on two different plays [Sunday]," Marshall said. "One play they called me for [pass interference] and the next play they didn't call it. I'm just going to play my game because I don't know what I can or can't do."

This isn't just the whining of a struggling cornerback with the league's 29th-ranked pass defense (by yardage allowed).

Kevin Coyle, the Dolphins defensive coordinator who has been charting this stuff for years, notes downfield contact is "being called pretty close" compared to years past.

"I think we're seeing more penalties down the field throughout the whole league right now," Coyle said. "Whether it's because of the officiating, I'm not sure exactly, but the numbers are up."

The Dolphins' revamped secondary has been called for seven penalties already this year totaling 70 yards. That includes a pair of pass interference calls against Nolan Carroll, including a 15-yarder on Sunday.

"You look at the plays [Sunday], a couple of them were legitimate calls," Coyle said, "and there's a couple you might say, 'Geez, sometimes that' s not called' or 'That doesn't look like it should have been called' or what have you."

Compounding matters is the fact the replacements aren't exactly willing to share explanations as the regular zebras often do. Maybe that's because they don't even know the rules.

"I got pushed on a route [Sunday] and they didn't call it," Marshall said. "Then I said something to the ref about it, and he told me to get out of his face."